Mommie Dearest - Drama on WNYWDT2

01/04/2016 09:18

Sunday, 4/3/2016

8:00 pm (EDT)

Storyline

In 1939, at the height of her box-office popularity, Joan Crawford adopted her oldest daughter, Christina. As her career falters and one marriage after another hits the rocks, Hollywood's diva of the 1940's turns to alcohol binges and wild rages towards her adopted child. If one believes Tina Crawford's telling, her starlet mother was an abusive and manipulative borderline personality whom no one dared cross for fear of her nearly-omnipotent retribution. Whether destructive midnight tirades or a drunken attempt to kill her, Christina forgives her mother over and over and tries to make amends. Joan sends Tina to various private schools with irrational instructions that she cannot leave the grounds or even have clothing. When the grown Christina begins a life of her own, her unstable mother attempts to overtake her marriage and her film career, keeping a strangehold on Christina's life until her death in 1977.